


how the cookie crumbles

by Anonymous



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: Family Issues, Gen, Headcanon, Korean-American Character, One Shot, Parent Death, it's been a while since I've seen an episode, lmaooo, maybe it's ooc I dunno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-21 21:26:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12466260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: A small look into Casey's home life.





	how the cookie crumbles

**Author's Note:**

> Usually, I don’t write stand-alone one shots for headcanons, but I feel like canon simply doesn’t give much of an insight as to what Casey’s home life is like. Does he have a family? I can only assume that he’s got a father at least, because there’s no way a sixteen year old can live on his own – “mature” or not, in most countries, it is simply impossible.  
> Also, before you all send questions after reading the fic, I’ll just state this here: I headcanon Casey and his family as Korean-Americans. His mother’s grandfather changed his surname to sound “more english.” His father, on the other hand, has dual nationality. I mostly go with this headcanon because he looked like he was of east asian descent to me when I saw the episode where he debuted. Just stating this ahead of time to avoid any questions.  
> Some parts are marked with asterisks, to be explained in the end notes since I know some people will still have a few questions and all.

Casey didn’t like to admit it, but when he saw Splinter train the turtles, and the way they all interacted with one another, he felt envious. Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo all had a good bond with their father, while him and his father’s bond was practically nonexistent. Even April and her father got along better than he did with his father. He hated being envious of his friends, but at the same time, he couldn’t help it – it just wasn’t fair.

But he wouldn’t voice his thoughts – never would he let them know how he felt, and the truth about his life at home. What was the use, anyhow? It wasn’t like they could fix anything. The damage was already done, a long time ago.

All he could do now was head back to the house he once fondly called “home” – now, it only served as a reminder of the fact that he couldn’t turn away from facing reality. He could spend as much time away from the house as he could, but he would have to return eventually.

So he took in a deep breath, and got on his bike, riding down the sidewalk. The flat pavement reminded him of how – back when his family lived in California (*) – he used to run on the sidewalks, before he’d nearly end up stepping in wet cement. It reminded him how, after he got his first bicycle, he would ride on it nonstop, with his little sister and parents chasing after him—it reminded him of the good old days, before everything crumbled.

He snapped out of his thoughts once he reached the front of his home. He went to the garage, leaving his bike leaning against the wall, before he headed to the porch. He knocked on the door, before it creaked open. Casey raised an eyebrow, before shrugging, guessing that his little sister must have left the door open when she came home from Middle School.

He walked into the house, and in the hallway, he could hear the faint sound of the TV playing. “Eun-jung,” he called out, “I’m home.”

“Casey!” the eleven year-old girl in question cried out as she ran out of the living room, to her brother. Her hair was the same shade of black as his, though it was shoulder-length and it also had a white hair clip in it. She was wearing a white shirt with red sleeves, along with jeans.

Her eyes were filled with joy as she hugged her brother’s torso tightly. “Where were you?” she asked. “I was waiting for you all day, so I left the door open, but you were gone for hours.”

“Sorry, squirt,” Casey apologized as he ruffled his sister’s hair. “I was just out doing vigilante stuff.”

Eun-jung rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I should have known… you used to go on and on for hours on how the system was messed up back then.” She smiled a bit. “But still, I missed you. It gets really lonely around here when you’re the only one in the house, and the only company you have is the TV.”

Casey smiled sadly, remembering how their father used to leave them alone together the first month after their mother’s loss. Now, here he was, having done the same thing his father had done; leaving his sister all by herself. “Yeah… I’ll try not to be as late next time – and I missed you, too, squirt.”

“So…” Eun-jung’s eyes shone a bit with curiosity. “…tell me, what’s it like being a vigilante? Is it exciting? Do you get to kick butts?”

“Uh, sorta…” Casey scratched his neck. How was he supposed to explain that he’d nearly gotten his behind kicked several times, and had to be saved by the turtles at least a couple of times? Would she even believe him if he told her about the turtles? Probably not.

“What do you mean by ‘sorta’?” Eun-jung asked, tilting her head to the side.

“I’ll explain it to you one day,” Casey simply responded.

But before his sister could say anything else, they heard a voice call from the doorway: “Eun-jung, what did I tell you about leaving the door unlocked?”

 _Oh, great. He’s here_ , Casey thought as he recognized the voice. He watched as his sister walked over to the owner of the voice.

“Dad, you’re home!” Eun-jung smiled at her father.

“Yeah – home sweet home,” Seok said simply, looking down at his daughter for a moment, then patting her head softly. He then looked at his son, noticing how the teenage boy looked away immediately when he turned his attention towards him. "Hello, Casey," he greeted his son.

Casey didn't say 'hello' back to the older man. He had no reason to, either. The man who was once his father was long gone, and this man was only a hollow shell of the one he'd once happily referred to as "Appa.(**)"

"Casey," Seok started, "is there something wrong?"

Casey shook his head. "No. Not at all."

Seok didn't press on any further. He diverted his attention back to Eun-jung, asking her, "So, how was your day, sweetheart?"

"School was fine, for the most part," Eun-jung replied. "Though it got kinda boring during the final class, and being alone at home wasn't exactly fun, either..."

"I—I'm sorry, what? You were all by yourself for _how long?_ " Seok asked his daughter, surprised.

"I come back here the same time every day, Dad. No later than two o'clock in the afternoon." Eun-jung rolled her eyes. "But Casey came home late today, so I was left by myself for a couple of hours."

Seok's eyes narrowed as he glanced at his son again, who was shaking his head quickly at his sister. "Casey, why were you out for so long? What were you doing?"

"Nothing," the teenager answered quickly. "I was just, uh... doing something, is all."

"Doing what, exactly?"

"Why does it matter to you so much?" Casey asked defensively. "Since when do you care about what I do- when did you start caring about  _us_ at all?"

"I care because I am your father!" Seok replied, raising his voice a little. "What kind of question is that, even?"

"I wouldn't have to ask if you hadn't left us alone for an entire month after Mom kicked the bucket," Casey spat.

"That was a few years ago; it's in the past now," Seok tried to push the topic aside. "I've learned from my mistakes since then."

"'In the past'? Since when is leaving your children to fend for themselves a thing to be pushed aside, like it's on the same level as breaking a window?" Casey asked, clenching his fist. "I had to provide food for us at the age of _thirteen_ , because there was no way an eight year-old girl could go out to a supermarket alone. Meanwhile, you were busy moping—not once did you think about how we felt."

Eun-jung looked between her father and her brother. "Guys, please... stop," she tried to end their fight, but in the end, they paid her no mind.

"That is enough, Casey. Just tell me: where were you for these past few hours?" Seok asked once more.

"...what else does a man who's joined the vigilante movement do." The way Casey had said it—it wasn't much of a question, rather than a statement.

"You joined the what?" his father hissed. "Casey Jones, how can you be so irresponsible?"

"Oh, that's rich coming from you!" the boy scoffed. "I'm only avenging crimes since the system is so messed up, that when a crime does happen, the case is almost never solved! That is not right, and I'm not gonna stand by and let these horrible events continue any longer. I'm gonna do what's right."

"What's right is that you come home after school instead of risking your life chasing some crooks." Seok glared at him. "I will not tolerate such recklessness. I would've thought that you were better than this."

"You know what? Maybe you're right about me being reckless—maybe I am a bit of a troublemaker, but unlike you, I actually do something right," Casey responded. "Fighting against crime is a better deed. At least I don't stoop to doing lowly things unlike you. You shouldn't be the one to say 'I thought that you were better than this', when you're literally trying to tiptoe around the fact that you were neglectful of your own flesh and blood for a month." He shook his head. "And, honestly?"

He walked up to his father, and stared at him directly in the eye. "I wish Mother was around instead of you."

"Casey—" Eun-jung started, but stopped as she looked at their father again. She noticed how he'd gone completely silent, with a look of shock on his face.

Casey turned away from his father, and headed upstairs to his room, before slamming the door behind him. He went over to his desk, and opened the drawers. He pulled out an old picture frame and blew away some of the dust from it. He stared at the picture for a while.

It was a picture of his mother, father, sister and him—five years before everything had gone to ruins.

Casey sighed. There was just one question that ate at him, for so long: of all the people in the world, why did his mother have to die from cancer? And why did it have to be fatal?

But of course, his question would remain unanswered, because there was no proper answer to it. And that was just how the cookie crumbled, sometimes.

**Author's Note:**

> yeah, kind of a downer ending. I know. I promise that I’ll write a one shot where Casey and Eun-jung talk about. Stuff.  
> I might also write Eun-jung meeting April, the turtles, Splinter, Karai and maybe even Shinigami – though it all depends, really. I’ll probably make it take place in an au or something. Who knows. Anyway, again, as I said before, the purpose of this one shot is to give a bit of depth into Casey’s life. Didn’t say it was gonna be happy, but I also didn’t say it’d be straight up brutal and nitty-gritty either.
> 
> (*) – pretty sure Casey was new to New York in his debut episode, like he appeared to have only been there for a few weeks at the time. And California has a large Asian-American population (although, yeah it’s mostly Japanese or Chinese-American from what I’ve gathered but there’s some other east/southeast/south asians there, too), so it’s not really a stretch for a Korean family to have resided there.  
> (**) - Appa is the Korean term for 'Father.' I thought it seemed only appropriate to use that instead of 'Baba' since the latter didn't sit well with me, really.


End file.
